Haying CRP Ground: FSA Rules, Real Numbers, and What CRP Hay Is Worth

By the XES Netting team — bale net-wrap manufacturer · Updated August 16, 2026 · ~43 min read

This page is not the rulebook. Everything below is quoted or summarised from the current federal regulation and FSA's own fact sheet, with the source named at each point. Programme rules change, and dates, practice eligibility and nesting-season windows differ by state and by contract. Confirm every point with your FSA county office before you act on it, and treat this page as a list of the right questions to ask rather than as authority. This is general information, not legal, agronomic or veterinary advice.

Who wrote this, and what we sell. XES Netting manufactures bale net wrap. We do not administer CRP, we are not agronomists or veterinarians, and we have no stake in whether you hay a CRP acre. That is why this page carries no product recommendation and no call to action — the decisions it points to belong to your FSA county office, your NRCS conservationist, your veterinarian or nutritionist, and your own agronomist.

Nothing is authorised until FSA authorises it

The Conservation Reserve Program pays landowners to keep environmentally sensitive ground out of production under contracts that run 10 to 15 years. Haying is possible on many CRP acres — but it starts from a prohibition, not a permission. The governing regulation, 7 CFR § 1410.63, opens:

"Unless specified in this part or otherwise approved by CCC, no uses of any kind are authorized on CRP acreage during the contract period." 7 CFR § 1410.63(a). The section is titled Permissive uses; there is no separate section called "managed haying and grazing." An accessible mirror of the same text is available at Cornell LII, because ecfr.gov may present a bot check to automated requests.

Everything downstream follows from that sentence. Both haying authorisations exist only "according to an approved conservation plan," which means two things have to be true before a mower moves:

• A modified conservation plan is in place. FSA's current fact sheet states the plan "must be based on current site conditions" and that its authorised purpose "must be to maintain vegetative cover, minimize soil erosion and protect water quality and wildlife habitat quality," and that these plans "must prevent long-term damage to the conservation cover."
• You have filed the request and it has been approved. The fact sheet is explicit that participants request emergency or non-emergency haying and grazing, indicating the acres involved, before the activity begins.

There is also an override that sits above everything else in the regulation:

"Notwithstanding paragraph (f) of this section, haying and grazing will not be permitted on any land enrolled in CRP if such haying and grazing for that year would cause long-term damage to the vegetative cover on that land." 7 CFR § 1410.63(g).

FSA's fact sheet also lists acres that are ineligible for both authorisations: those under useful life easements, land within 20 feet of a stream or other permanent water body, and any acres where haying or grazing would cause long-term damage to the CRP cover.

First question: which programme are you actually in?

  THE ORDER OF THE QUESTIONS

  1. WHICH ENROLMENT?
     General / Continuous ..... the rules on this page
     Grassland ................ its own approved plan
     CREP / SAFE .............. the agreement governs
     SHIPP .................... its own terms, 1410.70
                |
                v
  2. WHICH PRACTICE OR AGREEMENT?
     the exact CP code, or the agreement text
                |
                v
  3. IS IT AUTHORISED NOW?
     non-emergency .... current practice chart row
     emergency ........ county status + chart row
                        + which drought route
                |
                v
  4. IS THE PAPERWORK IN PLACE?
     modified conservation plan --
        developed by NRCS or a TSP
        APPROVED BY NRCS
     request filed and approved by FSA
     ... BEFORE anything is cut
                |
                v
  5. ONLY THEN, THE FIELD
     species / weeds / toxic plants / hazards
     pesticide history
     forage + nitrate testing -> vet or nutritionist
     equipment ratings, from the manuals

This is the step most often skipped, and getting it wrong makes everything that follows irrelevant. The permitted-activity rules in 7 CFR 1410.63(f)(2) and (f)(3) — the emergency and non-emergency provisions this page describes — do not apply at all to several kinds of enrolment. The regulation says so directly, and FSA's fact sheet repeats it: "These rules do not apply to Grassland CRP."

Exclusions quoted from 7 CFR § 1410.63(f)(1); SHIPP enrolment cut-off from § 1410.70(d). If you are not certain which of these your contract is, that is the first question for your county office — not a detail to settle later.

The two authorisations, side by side

FSA's fact sheet puts it plainly: "There are two types of haying and grazing authorization: non-emergency and emergency." They are different instruments with different costs, and most confused conversations about "haying CRP" are two people describing different ones.

Quoted provisions from 7 CFR § 1410.63(f)(2) and (f)(3), from FSA's CRP Haying and Grazing: Non-Emergency and Emergency Use fact sheet, August 2025, and from FSA's CRP Haying and Grazing Practice Chart, August 2025. These are three separate documents and they carry different things — the regulation sets the framework, the fact sheet gives the overview, and the practice chart carries the dates, durations and the practice-by-practice eligibility. FSA's own closing note applies to this table too: the fact sheet "is for informational purposes only; other eligibility requirements or restrictions may apply."

Non-emergency haying

The regulation sets three conditions on non-emergency haying and other commercial use, and prices it explicitly. It is permitted "only in exchange for a 25 percent reduction to the annual rental payment for the acres on which the permitted activity occurred," on condition that the activity:

• "Is completed only outside the primary nesting season"
• "Occurs not more than once every 3 years"
• "Maintains 25 percent of the total CRP contract acres unharvested, in accordance with a conservation plan that provides for wildlife cover and shelter"

7 CFR § 1410.63(f)(3)(ii). Note the payment reduction is on the acres on which the activity occurred, not the whole contract. Non-emergency grazing runs on a different cycle: the regulation permits grazing "not more frequently than every other year on the same land," and FSA's fact sheet states non-emergency grazing "may be utilized every two years," with additional grazing potentially available to new and beginning farmers.

Practice eligibility is not universal. FSA's current fact sheet states that all practices are eligible for non-emergency haying and grazing "except for CP12 Wildlife Food Plot and several tree practices." FSA's separate practice chart is the document that settles which is which. Its non-emergency table lists every CP code against four columns — haying and grazing outside the primary nesting season, and haying and grazing during it. Grass and wildlife-habitat practices such as CP1, CP2, CP4B, CP4D, CP8A and CP38E SAFE – Grass show "100% of acres" for haying outside the season; CP12, the tree and windbreak codes (CP3, CP3A, CP5A, CP16A, CP17A) and CP38A–D read "No" throughout the non-emergency table. Read your own practice code off the current chart rather than assuming — and note that the emergency table is a different table with different answers.

"100% of acres" does not mean you may hay the whole contract. That column marks the practice as eligible on its acreage — it is not a permission to harvest everything. The regulation still requires non-emergency haying to "maintain 25 percent of the total CRP contract acres unharvested" under 7 CFR 1410.63(f)(3)(ii)(C), and the chart repeats it. Both apply at once: an eligible practice, and 25% of the total contract acres left standing.

The dates and limits come from the practice chart

This is worth being precise about, because it trips people up: the regulation sets the framework, but the calendar backstop and the duration limits are in FSA's August 2025 practice chart, which is a separate document from the two-page overview fact sheet. The chart states:

"Non-emergency harvesting for hay or biomass may occur only once during the approved event. Haying/harvesting may not occur later than August 31. Participants must leave 25 percent of the contract acres unharvested or hayed. The unharvested acreage does not need to be the same acres each year. Non-emergency grazing must not exceed 120 days. During the primary nesting season (PNS), there must be a 50 percent carrying capacity reduction. Participant may rent or sell the hay or grazing rights. However, the CRP participant is responsible for any damages to the stand. Non-emergency haying and grazing requires a 25 percent reduction in annual rental payment." FSA, CRP Haying and Grazing Practice Chart, August 2025. Note the last two sentences together: you may rent or sell the haying rights, and you remain responsible for damage to the stand. That combination is the reason a written agreement matters when someone else does the cutting.

On "mid-contract management." Non-emergency haying and mid-contract management are related but not the same thing, and it is worth not conflating them. Mid-contract management is a maintenance obligation written into your contract and plan; non-emergency haying is a permitted commercial use that carries a payment reduction. Whether a particular haying operation would also satisfy a management requirement, and whether an alternative such as burning, mowing or spraying would satisfy it instead, is determined by your conservation plan and your county office — those methods are not automatically interchangeable, and each has its own timing, safety and permitting considerations.

Emergency haying

Emergency authorisation is a county-level event, not a personal one. The regulation permits emergency haying, grazing or use of the forage "in response to a localized or regional drought, flooding, wildfire, or other emergency as determined by CCC on all practices, outside the primary nesting season," when one of three things is true:

• "All or any part of the county … is designated as D2 (severe drought) or greater according to the United States Drought Monitor"
• "There is at least a 40 percent loss in forage production in the county"
• "CCC determines that CRP can assist in the response to a natural disaster event without permanent damage to the established cover"

7 CFR § 1410.63(f)(2)(i).

FSA's August 2025 fact sheet adds the operational detail:

• Status is reviewed on a set cycle. "Emergency haying and grazing status is reviewed and authorized each Thursday using the U.S. Drought monitor," county by county, when a county is designated "D2 Drought — Severe."
• A county committee can also initiate it. Requests "may also be initiated by the FSA County Committee due to a livestock emergency," and the request "must document a 40 percent or greater loss of forage production due to the disaster event."
• It can close early. An authorisation "may end earlier than announced if conditions improve."
• One cutting, and you may sell it. "For emergency haying, producers are limited to one cutting and are permitted to sell the hay." Producers may also use the acreage for their own livestock or "grant another livestock producer use of their CRP acreage."
• Your plan and the chart set the window. FSA's fact sheet says "Producers must follow their conservation plan to timing and duration of haying or grazing," and the practice chart puts an outer limit on it — see below.
• County boundaries bind. Emergency haying or grazing "is limited to the acres physically located within the boundary of the eligible county or portion of a county."
• The Livestock Forage Program route is narrower. "If the county is approved for Livestock Forage Program (LFP) payments, only certain practices can be hayed on 50 percent of the eligible acres." The regulation matches: emergency haying under the LFP trigger applies to "certain practices, as determined by CCC," outside the nesting season, "on not more than 50 percent of the eligible CRP contract acres."

The practice chart adds the duration limits and a second drought tier

FSA's August 2025 practice chart carries the emergency limits the overview fact sheet does not:

"Under no circumstances may emergency haying or grazing be permitted if such activity would cause long-term damage to the vegetative cover on the land, determined on a site-by-site basis.

Emergency Haying outside of the primary nesting season (PNS), one cutting may be authorized up to 60 days from when the activity is approved or from when the participant receives their modified conservation plan during the program year.

Emergency Grazing may utilize up to 90 consecutive days or a total of 90 days before and after the PNS …

No fee or reduction assessed for Emergency Haying and Grazing. Participant may rent or sell the emergency haying and grazing. However, the CRP participant is responsible for any damages to the stand." FSA, CRP Haying and Grazing Practice Chart, August 2025.

There is also a second, more severe drought tier, which most summaries of "is CRP released?" miss entirely. The chart's emergency table is not a single yes-or-no column: it separates D2 outside the primary nesting season from "D2 for 8 weeks, D3, D4." The more severe tier opens additional columns — including grazing during the nesting season at reduced carrying capacity for many practices — while haying during the nesting season shows "No" on the practice rows we read. So "the county is in D2" is the beginning of the question, not the end of it.

"All practices" is the regulation's phrase, not a single yes-or-no

The regulation describes emergency haying under the drought and disaster triggers as applying "on all practices." The chart's emergency table is not one column, and it cannot be collapsed into eligible-or-not. It has six value columns across two drought routes:

• Ordinary D2, outside the nesting season — haying, and grazing.
• The more severe route, labelled "D2 for 8 weeks, D3, D4" — haying outside the season, grazing outside the season, haying during the season, and grazing during the season.

A practice can read Yes in one column and No in the next, so the only correct way to use it is to find your row and then read across to the column that matches your county's drought route. Some examples from the August 2025 chart, showing the haying columns only:

Read directly from the August 2025 practice chart's emergency table. The grazing columns are separate and are not shown here — at the more severe route many of these practices show grazing outside the season as "Yes" and grazing during the season at "50% Carrying Capacity", even where haying reads "No". This is an illustration of how the table behaves, not a substitute for reading your own row on the current chart.

Notice what the third column is. The "50% of acres" and "No" entries under the severe route are the chart's expression of 7 CFR 1410.63(f)(2)(iii), which permits emergency haying where Livestock Forage Program payments are authorised "on certain practices, as determined by CCC, only outside the primary nesting season … but on not more than 50 percent of the eligible CRP contract acres." The regulation's "certain practices" and "50 percent" are that column. So the two documents agree — the regulation states the framework, and the chart says which practices and how much.

Two further constraints sit outside the table altogether:

• CP12 Wildlife Food Plot is the exception to "all practices", reading No in every emergency column as well as every non-emergency one.
• SAFE acres still need their own authorisation. Even where a CP38 row shows Yes, the regulation places SAFE outside the general provisions unless the SAFE project specifically permits the activity. CREP and Grassland CRP are outside the chart entirely, per its footnote: "This table applies to General and Continuous (non-CREP) CRP."

And the contrast worth carrying away: tree and windbreak codes read "No" in every non-emergency column, yet read "Yes" for haying under ordinary D2 emergency conditions. The two authorisations genuinely differ by practice, and only the chart shows how.

The primary nesting season

No haying happens during it. FSA's fact sheet describes a primary nesting season "in which activity is restricted," notes that "generally those periods begin in March and end in July," and states that during this time "grazing can occur with restrictions on carrying capacity and no haying can be conducted."

Treat "March to July" as FSA's general description, not as your dates. The regulation uses the term throughout without fixing a national window, because the dates are set at state level. Get your state's current dates from your county office.

What the current rules do not say

One widely repeated "CRP haying rule" could not be found in any of the three current national documents we reviewed. We are flagging it as unconfirmed rather than repeating it as fact — and equally, rather than telling you no such requirement can exist.

A note on how this page was checked. Dates and durations that govern haying are not in the regulation — the August 31 backstop and the 60-day emergency window both come from FSA's practice chart, a separate document from the two-page overview fact sheet. If you are checking a rule against a source, make sure you are looking at the right one of the three.

Who does what: FSA, NRCS and you

Roles from 7 CFR §§ 1410.1(a), 1410.1(f) and 1410.22(a). The distinction that matters: NRCS approves the plan; FSA authorises the activity. Both have to be in place.

If you hay without authorisation

The regulation is short and worth reading in the original rather than in paraphrase:

"(a) If a participant fails to carry out the terms and conditions of a CRP contract, CCC may terminate the CRP contract in whole or in part.

(b) If the CRP contract is terminated … the participant will: (1) Forfeit all rights to further payments under such CRP contract for the terminated acres, and refund all payments previously received for the terminated acres, plus interest; and (2) Pay liquidated damages to CCC in an amount as specified in the contract." 7 CFR § 1410.52.

Note the word "may" — termination is not automatic, and determinations are made case by case. Note also that the liquidated-damages amount is set by your individual contract, not by the regulation. The practical conclusion is the same either way: the phone call belongs before the work, not after.

Before the mower: inventory the field

CRP ground that has not been cut in years is not a hayfield with tall grass on it. Walk it first, and write down what you find.

• What is actually growing. Practice code, seeded species, and what has since colonised. University of Minnesota Extension notes that surveys of Minnesota CRP fields found "a diversity of desirable and undesirable plants," with Canada thistle, perennial sowthistle, bull thistle, quackgrass, dandelion and goldenrod among those frequently present.
• Noxious weeds. UMN's guidance is direct: "Be on the lookout for noxious weeds like Palmer amaranth and report any suspect plants," and "Do not cut and transport noxious weeds." Moving a baler through a noxious-weed patch and then hauling the bales is how an infestation reaches a clean field.
• Toxic plants — identify them before you cut, not after. See the warning below; this is the one that hurts animals.
• Accumulated dead residue. UMN notes that the range of CRP hay quality "likely reflects relative abundance of legumes and weeds in the CRP along with how much decaying residue was present in the hay," and that "fields that have been burned or hayed in the past will have less decaying residue." Old thatch goes into the bale and dilutes everything.
• Woody growth, which damages equipment and ends up in feed.
• Hazards under the canopy: badger and other burrows, rock, old fence wire, posts, culverts, washouts, terraces and slopes you cannot see until the grass is down. Tall cover hides all of it.
• Pesticide application records. See the herbicide section — check before you cut, not after you have sold the bales.

Curing can make a dangerous plant easier to eat. Oregon State University Extension is explicit: "Never include poisonous plants in hay. Drying may improve palatability and animals fed only small amounts of hay may be hungry enough to eat the weeds." The same publication warns that herbicides "cause plants to wilt and can improve their palatability to animals." An animal that walks past a plant in a standing stand may eat it out of a bale. Identify what is in the field before it is cut, and get identification help if you are unsure — several dangerous species are easy to mistake for harmless ones.

One example of why identification matters: Alabama Cooperative Extension describes perilla mint as "highly toxic when consumed by cattle, other ruminants, and horses," with "the entirety of the plant" toxic and the flowering structures "especially potent," and notes that plants "are generally more toxic as they enter the reproductive phase of growth, which also coincides with periods of lower forage quality and quantity" — that is, late summer, which is when CRP haying tends to happen.

Timing and stubble height

Two separate constraints apply, and the regulatory one wins.

First, what your authorisation permits. FSA's fact sheet states producers "must follow their conservation plan to timing and duration of haying or grazing." Whatever an agronomy publication recommends, you may only cut inside the window your plan and authorisation allow.

Second, what the stand needs. Within that window, timing and cutting height determine whether the stand is still there next year. This is species-, region- and objective-specific, and there is no single date that works across species or latitudes. Extension guides key their recommendations to the plant's development stage rather than to the calendar — which stage depends on the species and on whether you are managing for forage quality, seed, biomass or wildlife cover. Where the guide for your species uses boot stage, note that boot stage for the same species can fall weeks apart between a Tennessee field and a Minnesota one.

For a sense of how species-specific this gets, University of Nebraska–Lincoln's guidance on native warm-season grasses notes that switchgrass "must be grazed before seedheads develop," that after seedheads emerge "nutrient levels become low and switchgrass becomes less acceptable," and that animals "are reluctant to eat mature switchgrass and may refuse it entirely if other feed is available." Big bluestem, indiangrass, little bluestem and eastern gamagrass each have their own windows.

On stubble height: UNL advises leaving "at least 6 to 8 inches of growth when plants go dormant for the winter," warning that "severe defoliation of warm-season grasses in late summer will result in poor regrowth, reduced plant vigor, and potential stand thinning and weed encroachment the following spring." That is a Nebraska recommendation about native warm-season grasses and winter dormancy — it is not a universal CRP rule, and your own figure should come from your species, your region and your conservation plan.

What the hay is actually worth

Test it. Do not assume it, and do not price it from an article.

University of Minnesota Extension published analyses of CRP hay samples submitted to a commercial laboratory and predicted by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. The headline is the spread, not the average:

Source: University of Minnesota Extension, "Harvesting CRP land for hay." Samples submitted to Dairyland Laboratories, Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, predicted by NIRS. Sample count and year span are not stated in the publication. These are Minnesota-region laboratory samples, not a national standard.

A crude protein range of 3 to 16% is the whole point. One CRP field is not another CRP field, and an average of 7 tells you almost nothing about the load in front of you. UMN attributes the spread to the abundance of legumes and weeds and to how much decaying residue went into the bale.

So: sample your own lots properly and send them to a certified laboratory, defining a lot as one field, one species mix and one harvest period. Then take the analysis, your animals' class, stage of production and expected intake, and the rest of the ration to a veterinarian or qualified nutritionist. Whether a given lot suits a dry cow, a growing heifer or a horse is a formulation decision, not something a webpage can settle from a grade or a single protein number.

Nitrate, and how to read the test

Stressed forage can accumulate nitrate, and CRP hay is often cut in exactly the conditions that produce stress.

Heavy nitrogen fertilisation is not required. University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Nitrates in Livestock Feeding states that nitrate concentrations "depend more on plant species and environmental conditions prior to harvest than on the amount of available nitrogen in the soil," listing stresses including shading or low light, drought, frost, hail, low temperatures, herbicide applications and disease. It adds that while soil nitrate and plant nitrate are positively related, "the effect of nitrogen fertilization appears to be less important than the conditions listed previously."

Read the units before you read the number. Laboratories report nitrate in different ways, and the same forage produces very different-looking figures. UNL gives the conversions:

Nitrate = Nitrate Nitrogen × 4.43
Nitrate Nitrogen = Nitrate × 0.226 UNL G1779. So NO₃-N × 4.43 = NO₃, and NO₃ ÷ 4.43 = NO₃-N. UNL's reporting table is stated on a dry basis. Confirm which form and which basis your laboratory used before comparing a result to any published threshold — a figure read in the wrong units is out by a factor of about four and a half.

Curing does not solve it. UNL states plainly that "the drying process does not decrease nitrates," so hay may need dilution with low-nitrate forage in the diet. Ensiling is different — UNL notes fermentation can reduce nitrate by 40 to 60% — but also that "excessive nitrate in forages will not always be reduced to safe values during ensiling." UNL adds a specific caution: do not feed suspect feed "when it is damp," because damp feed "tends to be more toxic because some of the nitrate already has been converted to the more toxic nitrite."

Sample the finished lot. Preharvest sampling of the standing crop has real value — it can tell you whether to cut at all, whether to raise the cutting height, or whether to wait — but it does not substitute for representative testing of the baled lot that will actually be fed, because nitrate varies within a field and within the plant. Take the feeding decision with a veterinarian: dilution rates, and which animals can safely receive a given lot, are veterinary judgements.

Herbicide history

Check what was applied to the ground before you bale it, and tell whoever ends up with the hay.

NC State Extension documents that picloram, clopyralid and aminopyralid "can remain active in hay, grass clippings, piles of manure, and compost for an unusually long time," and that while deactivation can take as little as 30 days, "some field reports indicate that complete deactivation and breakdown can take several years. Hay has been reported to have residual herbicide activity after three years' storage in dry, dark barns."

• The current label governs. NC State's own caution: "Herbicide product names and formulations change; always check labels for active ingredients." A product list in an article is a prompt to read the label, not a substitute for it.
• Keep and pass on the record. "Landowners should know and have a written record of the herbicides applied to their fields," and "every individual in the chain of use … should provide detailed information on the herbicide restrictions."
• Never for mulch or compost. "Do not sell or give away treated hay (even if it is several years old) for use as mulch or for making compost." NC State notes the hay can be sold for livestock and horse consumption, "but be sure the purchaser is aware that the herbicide may pass through into the manure."

University of Minnesota makes the same point in the CRP context specifically: "Review any herbicides that may have been applied. Any longer-residual herbicides like picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid may cause issues when hay or manure is spread on fields seeded to sensitive crops."

Baling moisture and heating

Safe baling moisture depends on the package. Purdue Extension gives target moisture to begin baling without an effective preservative as 20% for small rectangular bales, 18% for large round bales and 17% for large rectangular bales. NDSU states hay becomes a fire hazard "when the moisture content is 20 percent or higher in small stacked bales and more than 18 percent in stacked large square or round bales."

Then monitor. NDSU notes hay fires "usually occur within six weeks of baling," and Purdue cautions that with storage-structure fires "it may take three to four weeks before spontaneous combustion occurs," so a few days of readings prove nothing. Purdue's temperature actions, citing NRAES-18:

Source: Purdue University Extension, "Is Your Hay Too Hot?", citing NRAES-18. NDSU advises calling the fire department immediately if hay temperatures are above 175°F. Disassembling a hot stack is only sensible if it can be done safely; from 190°F upward, removal is a fire-service job.

Baleage from mature grass

It is not accurate to say mature native grass "cannot" be made into baleage. It is accurate to say the fermentation is working against you, and the failure mode is serious.

Purdue notes that "good fermentation is dependent upon a supply of readily fermentable carbohydrates" and that "overly mature forage will have less nonstructural carbohydrate." That matters because, as Purdue also states, "proper fermentation is critical to reduce the disease chances of botulism and listeriosis. The toxins cannot form if the silage pH is less than 4.5." Mature, low-sugar forage is exactly the material least able to drive pH down.

Mississippi State Extension is blunt about what ensiling does and does not do: "Baleage is not for improving the nutritive value of your forage crop, but to preserve it. With that said, if you are producing low-quality forage and you ensile it, you will have low-quality baleage when you feed it."

A pH reading is not a safety clearance. Purdue's statement is about toxin formation during fermentation, and it is one indicator among several. A pH below 4.5 does not rule out toxin that formed before the pH dropped, carcass contamination baled into the forage, mould or mycotoxins, damage to the film after wrapping, or a sample that simply missed the bad part of the lot. A single pH number does not make suspect feed safe. Have the finished lot analysed, and take the feeding decision with a veterinarian or qualified nutritionist.

If you go ahead anyway, the controls are not optional. Published guidance includes a moisture target — Purdue gives 50 to 60%, Mississippi State gives 40 to 60% with 50% ideal — dense uniform bales, prompt wrapping (Purdue: ideally within four hours; Mississippi State: a maximum of 12 hours before wrapping), adequate film (Purdue: six to eight layers; Mississippi State: a minimum of four to six wraps with six recommended), and time: Mississippi State notes "it takes at least 35 days for the pH to get low enough to stop all microbial growth." Follow the exact figures in your wrapper's manual and your own source, and test the result before feeding it. There is also a practical problem specific to CRP: hay cut in a late-summer authorisation window may be far drier than the baleage moisture range, and getting it up to that range is not something you control.

Equipment and safety

Tall, tough, unfamiliar ground with hidden obstacles is a high-risk combination. Nothing here substitutes for the operator's manual for your specific machine.

• Work from the manuals. Tractor, mower or mower-conditioner, rake, baler and loader all have rated capacities, recommended settings and required guards. Match the machine to the crop and the ground rather than the other way round.
• Rate the whole chain. Tractor, loader, attachment, tyres, axles and brakes all have limits, and a heavy bale on a slope finds the weakest one. Weigh representative bales rather than assuming a weight — you cannot check a rating against a guess.
• ROPS and seat belt, PTO shields and all guards in place and undamaged before you start.
• "Go slow and keep the load low." Penn State Extension notes that carrying a bale raises the tractor's centre of gravity and that raising the loader for visibility raises it further, increasing side-overturn risk — and that rear-mounted three-point lifts bring their own instability if the bale is lifted too high.
• Never position yourself under a raised bale or in the path of one that can roll. Set the brake, lower the loader and shut down before anyone approaches a stack.
• Watch for what the cover was hiding — burrows, rock, wire, old posts, washouts and terrace slopes. Walk or drive the field first where you can.
• Overhead lines, on the way in and on the way out, with a loaded loader.

We are not going to tell you what settings to run or promise you a bale density. Both depend on your machine, your crop and your conditions, and the manual is the authority.

Storage

Storage loss is real and worth planning for, but the published figures are specific to the studies that produced them. University of Minnesota Extension summarises three:

• Oklahoma: 13.1% dry-matter loss for uncovered storage on the ground, against 2% for covered storage on pallets.
• Wisconsin: 10.9% uncovered on the ground, against 4.6% in a barn.
• Morris, Minnesota: 11.2% in uncovered piles on sod, against 2.3% in the barn. In the same work, bales on gravel lost 10.9% uncovered but 4.8% covered.

UMN's own summary of the three: "for eight to nine months of storage, keeping bales off wet ground and under cover can offer a 6 to 11 percent advantage." In the Morris work, bottom bales stored uncovered on sod went from 18% moisture to about 32%, with roughly 22 to 23% of the bottom-bale volume spoiled, against 1 to 8% for bottom bales on gravel or in a barn.

Those are three studies in three places over a stated period, not a rule about your farm. Get the bales off wet ground, keep water away from them, and measure your own loss if the number matters to your decision.

Working out whether it pays

There is no national price for CRP hay, no typical yield, and no reliable quality assumption — the 3 to 16% protein range above is the proof. Build the number from your own field.

• Measure the yield and the bale weight. Weigh representative bales rather than estimating.
• Test the lots and price against what the analysis actually shows.
• Use a local comparable on a consistent unit and moisture basis — per ton or per bale, as-fed or dry matter, and the same on both sides of the comparison.
• Count all the costs: harvest, transport, storage, testing, insurance, and your own time.
• For non-emergency haying, put the 25% rental reduction on the acres involved into the arithmetic as a real cost of the decision.

If someone else is cutting it, write it down. FSA's practice chart is explicit that a participant "may rent or sell the hay or grazing rights" — and equally explicit that "the CRP participant is responsible for any damages to the stand." You can hand over the haying; you cannot hand over the responsibility. A short written agreement should assign, at minimum: who obtains the FSA authorisation and holds responsibility for compliance; who is responsible for field damage; who removes the bales and by when; where they are stored and at whose risk; what happens to hay that is rejected on quality; and how and when payment is made. Rules on agricultural sales vary by state and this is not legal advice — but an unwritten arrangement on regulated ground is a bad combination.

If you sell the hay

Disclose what you know. The buyer cannot see any of it.

• That it is CRP hay, the practice or cover type, and roughly how long the stand went uncut.
• Harvest date and lot identity — which field, which cutting, which bales. A lot that cannot be identified cannot be traced back if something goes wrong.
• The forage analysis, on a stated basis, for the lot actually being sold.
• Any nitrate result, with the units and basis stated.
• Bale dimensions and weight — width × diameter for round bales, and a representative measured weight rather than an assumed one, with the moisture at which it was weighed. A bale weight without a moisture basis is not a specification.
• The price unit — per ton or per bale, as-fed or dry matter, and the same basis on both sides of the deal.
• Storage — inside, outside, on what surface, covered or not, and for how long.
• Delivery and unloading terms — who hauls, who unloads, where title passes, and who bears the risk in transit.
• Herbicide history in writing, per NC State's chain-of-use guidance, together with any label restrictions that travel with the hay or the manure — and never for mulch or compost where those residual actives were used.
• Weeds and any toxic plants you identified, and where in the field they were.
• Weather damage, mould or heating you observed, and any foreign material.

Disclosing all of that is not the same as warranting the hay. Do not guarantee that a lot is suitable for any particular animal or class — that is a formulation judgement for the buyer's veterinarian or nutritionist, working from the analysis and the rest of the ration.

The bottom line

Haying CRP is a regulated activity before it is an agronomic one. The order that keeps you out of trouble is: find out which programme your contract is in, ask your FSA county office what is authorised for your practice and your county this year, get the modified conservation plan in place, and only then think about mowers. The regulation's opening sentence is not a formality — no use is authorised unless it has been authorised.

After that it is a forage decision like any other, with one difference: you know less about this field than about your hayfields. So walk it, identify what is in it, test what comes off it, and take the feeding decisions with a veterinarian or nutritionist rather than from a protein average that spans 3 to 16%.

Frequently asked questions

Can you hay CRP ground?

Sometimes, and only with authorisation first. The governing regulation, 7 CFR 1410.63(a), states that unless specified in the regulation or otherwise approved by the Commodity Credit Corporation, no uses of any kind are authorised on CRP acreage during the contract period. Haying is permitted in two forms — non-emergency and emergency — but both require an approved conservation plan, and FSA's August 2025 fact sheet states that participants request haying or grazing and indicate the acres involved before the activity begins. Whether your acres qualify depends on your programme, your practice code, your county and your conservation plan, so the only reliable answer comes from your FSA county office.

Does haying CRP reduce your CRP payment?

It depends which authorisation applies. Non-emergency haying is permitted under 7 CFR 1410.63(f)(3) only in exchange for a 25 percent reduction in the annual rental payment for the acres on which the activity occurred — not for the whole contract. Emergency haying falls under 1410.63(f)(2), which permits the listed activities without any reduction to the annual rental payment. That difference is the single biggest reason two people can describe haying CRP in completely different terms and both be right.

When can CRP be hayed?

Outside the primary nesting season, and within the window your conservation plan and authorisation allow. For non-emergency haying the regulation requires the activity to be completed only outside the primary nesting season and to occur not more than once every three years, and FSA's August 2025 practice chart adds that non-emergency harvesting may occur only once during the approved event and may not occur later than August 31. For emergency haying the regulation likewise requires it to be outside the nesting season, and the practice chart states that one cutting may be authorised for up to 60 days from when the activity is approved or from when the participant receives their modified conservation plan during the program year. Those dates and durations come from the practice chart rather than from the regulation or the two-page overview fact sheet, so make sure you are reading the right document. FSA describes primary nesting seasons as generally beginning in March and ending in July, but the actual dates are set at state level, so get yours from your county office.

How does emergency CRP haying get approved?

County by county, on a set review cycle. The regulation allows emergency haying where any part of the county is designated D2 severe drought or greater on the U.S. Drought Monitor, or there is at least a 40 percent loss in forage production in the county, or the Commodity Credit Corporation determines CRP can assist in responding to a natural disaster without permanent damage to the established cover. FSA's August 2025 fact sheet states that emergency haying and grazing status is reviewed and authorised each Thursday using the U.S. Drought Monitor, that a county committee may also initiate a request documenting a 40 percent or greater forage loss, and that an authorisation may end earlier than announced if conditions improve. For emergency haying, producers are limited to one cutting and are permitted to sell the hay. FSA's August 2025 practice chart adds that one cutting may be authorised for up to 60 days from when the activity is approved or from when the participant receives their modified conservation plan during the program year, that no fee or reduction is assessed for emergency haying and grazing, and that a participant may rent or sell the emergency haying and grazing while remaining responsible for any damages to the stand. The chart also separates D2 outside the nesting season from a more severe tier described as D2 for 8 weeks, D3 and D4, which opens additional columns, so check your own practice row rather than assuming a county-level yes or no.

Do bales have to be removed from CRP within 15 days?

We could not confirm that from the current national sources we reviewed. A 15-day bale removal deadline does not appear in 7 CFR 1410.63, in FSA's August 2025 CRP haying and grazing fact sheet, or in FSA's August 2025 practice chart. That is not the same as saying no such requirement can exist — it could appear in an FSA notice or handbook, in a state authorisation, or as a condition attached to your own approval, and it is widely repeated in farm media. Because we could not verify it either way, do not plan around it in either direction. Ask your FSA county office what removal requirement attaches to your specific authorisation, and get the answer in writing.

Do the same CRP haying rules apply to Grassland CRP?

No, and the difference cuts both ways. The regulation states that the permitted activity provisions in 7 CFR 1410.63(f)(2) and (f)(3) do not apply to land enrolled under a grassland signup, and FSA's fact sheet says the same in plain terms: these rules do not apply to Grassland CRP. But that is not a prohibition either. FSA's August 2025 practice chart states that Grassland CRP is a working lands program and that participants are therefore permitted to utilise the land in accordance with an approved conservation plan. So the once-every-three-years limit, the August 31 backstop and the 25 percent payment reduction described on this page do not govern Grassland CRP, and instead your approved plan does, including any nesting-season restrictions in it. The same exclusion from the general provisions covers the Soil Health and Income Protection Pilot Program, most Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program agreements executed on or after 20 December 2018 unless the agreement specifically permits the activity, and State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement projects unless the project specifically permits it. Ask FSA for the current Grassland CRP fact sheet and for what your own plan allows.

What is CRP hay worth as feed?

Test it, because the variation is enormous. University of Minnesota Extension reported CRP hay samples averaging 7 percent crude protein with a range of 3 to 16 percent, average acid detergent fibre of 43 percent, average neutral detergent fibre of 64 percent, and relative feed value averaging 80 with a range of 54 to 119. Those are laboratory samples from the Minnesota region predicted by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy, not a national standard. A range that wide means an average tells you very little about the load in front of you, so sample your own lots, send them to a certified laboratory, and take the analysis to a veterinarian or qualified nutritionist along with the animals' class, stage of production and expected intake and the rest of the ration.

What should I check for before haying CRP for the first time?

Walk the field before anything is cut. Identify the seeded species and whatever has colonised since, look for noxious weeds — University of Minnesota Extension advises watching for noxious weeds such as Palmer amaranth and not cutting and transporting them — and identify toxic plants before they end up in a bale. Oregon State University Extension warns never to include poisonous plants in hay because drying may improve palatability and animals fed only small amounts of hay may be hungry enough to eat the weeds. Also check for accumulated dead residue, woody growth, and hazards hidden under tall cover such as burrows, rock, old fence wire, posts, washouts and slopes. Review the herbicide application history before you cut, because picloram, clopyralid and aminopyralid can remain active in hay and in the manure of animals that eat it.

What happens if you hay CRP without permission?

7 CFR 1410.52 provides that if a participant fails to carry out the terms and conditions of a CRP contract, the Commodity Credit Corporation may terminate the contract in whole or in part, and that on termination the participant will forfeit all rights to further payments for the terminated acres, refund all payments previously received for those acres plus interest, and pay liquidated damages in an amount specified in the contract. The regulation says may terminate rather than will, so determinations are made case by case, and the liquidated damages figure comes from your individual contract rather than from the regulation. The practical point is that the conversation with your county office belongs before the work rather than after it.

Sources: 7 CFR Part 1410 — § 1410.63 Permissive uses (general prohibition, programme exclusions, emergency and non-emergency provisions, long-term damage override), § 1410.52 Violations, § 1410.1 (administration by CCC, FSA and the State and county committees; NRCS technical determinations), § 1410.22 (conservation plan approved by NRCS), and § 1410.70 (Soil Health and Income Protection Pilot Program permitted uses and 31 December 2020 enrolment cut-off). Text read from the eCFR API on August 16, 2026 and cross-checked against the Cornell Legal Information Institute mirror; the human-readable ecfr.gov page may present a bot check to automated requests (ecfr.gov and law.cornell.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). USDA Farm Service Agency, CRP Haying and Grazing Practice Chart, August 2025 — the non-emergency August 31 deadline, harvesting only once during the approved event, 25% of contract acres unharvested and not necessarily the same acres each year, the 120-day non-emergency grazing cap and 50% carrying-capacity reduction during the nesting season, the 25% rental reduction, the emergency 60-day one-cutting window from approval or receipt of the modified conservation plan, the 90-day emergency grazing limit, "No fee or reduction assessed for Emergency Haying and Grazing," the rent-or-sell provision with the participant remaining responsible for damages to the stand, the site-by-site long-term damage determination, and the practice-by-practice tables — the four-column non-emergency table and the six-column emergency table across the ordinary D2 route and the "D2 for 8 weeks, D3, D4" route, including the CP12 Wildlife Food Plot "No" rows in both tables, the tree, windbreak and CP38A–D "No" rows in the non-emergency table, the "50% of acres" haying entries under the severe emergency route, and the footnote stating that the tables apply to General and Continuous (non-CREP) CRP and that "Grassland CRP is a working lands program and therefore participants are permitted to utilize the land in accordance with an approved conservation plan" (fsa.usda.gov, accessed August 16, 2026). USDA Farm Service Agency, CRP Haying and Grazing: Non-Emergency and Emergency Use, fact sheet, August 2025 — two authorisation types, Grassland CRP exclusion, request before activity begins, non-emergency every three years and grazing every two, CP12 and several tree practices ineligible, Thursday review cycle, D2 designation, county committee request documenting 40% forage loss, early end if conditions improve, one cutting and permission to sell, conservation plan governs timing and duration, county boundary limit, Livestock Forage Program route limited to certain practices on 50% of eligible acres, and the ineligible-acres list (fsa.usda.gov, accessed August 16, 2026). University of Minnesota Extension, "Harvesting CRP land for hay" — CRP forage quality table including the 3–16% crude protein range, weed survey findings, decaying residue, and the herbicide review recommendation (blog-crop-news.extension.umn.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, Grazing Native Warm-Season Grasses G1908 — species-specific timing and the 6–8 inch dormancy stubble recommendation (extensionpubs.unl.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Oregon State University Extension, EM-9871, Avoiding Poisonous Plants in Pasture and Hay — drying may improve palatability (extension.oregonstate.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Alabama Cooperative Extension System, "Perilla Mint: A Toxic Threat to Livestock" (aces.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Mary E. Drewnoski, Bruce E. Anderson, Paul J. Kononoff and M. Beth Reynolds, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, Nitrates in Livestock Feeding G1779 — stress rather than fertilisation as the dominant driver, the 4.43 conversion, dry-basis reporting, and the damp-feed caution — and UNL BeefWatch, "What to Do with High Nitrate Forage" — drying does not decrease nitrates (extensionpubs.unl.edu and beef.unl.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension, "Herbicide Carryover in Hay, Manure, Compost, and Grass Clippings" (content.ces.ncsu.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Purdue University Extension, "Is Your Hay Too Hot?" citing NRAES-18 — package-specific baling moisture and the temperature action table — and "Baleage Practices for Success" — fermentable carbohydrate, pH 4.5, moisture and wrapping (extension.entm.purdue.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). NDSU Extension, "Preventing Hay Fires Due to Excessive Moisture" (ndsu.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Mississippi State University Extension, "Baleage Production Tips" (extension.msstate.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). University of Minnesota Extension, "Preserving the value of dry stored hay" — the Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Morris storage-loss studies (extension.umn.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Penn State Extension, "Safely Moving and Storing Large Hay Bales" (extension.psu.edu, accessed August 16, 2026). Programme rules change and vary by state, county, practice code and contract. Nothing on this page is an authorisation. Confirm every point with your FSA county office before acting. This page is general information and is not legal, agronomic or veterinary advice.

Featured photo: Prairie hay by Justin Meissen, licensed CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.